Science 7 November 2026

Sir C.V. Raman – the Raman effect and Asia's first Nobel Prize in science

Five key points

1. Early life: born at Thiruvanaikaval near Tiruchirappalli, he studied at Presidency College, Madras (B.A. 1904, M.A. 1907). He joined the Indian Finance Department in Calcutta in 1907 and did research in his spare hours at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS); in 1917 he became Palit Professor of Physics at the University of Calcutta.
2. Discovery: on 28 February 1928, with his student K.S. Krishnan, he showed that when light passes through a transparent substance, a tiny part of the scattered light comes out with a changed wavelength – the 'Raman effect'. 28 February is observed as National Science Day (first observed in 1987).
3. The science: most scattered light keeps its wavelength (Rayleigh scattering); in Raman scattering the light exchanges energy with the vibrating molecules, so new lines appear on either side of the original (Stokes and anti-Stokes lines). Each substance gives its own 'fingerprint', so Raman spectroscopy is used to identify materials – in chemistry, medicine, gem testing and forensics.
4. Honours and institutions: knighted (1929); Nobel Prize in Physics (1930) – the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in science, for work done in India; Bharat Ratna (1954, in the first batch); Lenin Peace Prize (1957). He became the first Indian Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru (1933), founded the Indian Academy of Sciences (1934) and the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru (1948), and died in Bengaluru on 21 November 1970.
5. Other work and Tamil Nadu link: after a sea voyage to England in 1921 he argued that the blue of the sea comes mainly from the scattering of light by water molecules, not merely from reflecting the sky; he also studied the acoustics of the violin and of Indian drums such as the tabla and mridangam. Tamil Nadu link – his co-worker K.S. Krishnan was born at Watrap, and his nephew S. Chandrasekhar won the Physics Nobel in 1983.

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Sources: www.nobelprize.org · www.nobelprize.org · www.rri.res.in · www.ias.ac.in · iisc.ac.in · www.mha.gov.in